Studio Space

My studio space starts clean. Clean floor, clean tools, clean surfaces. Then I start whatever art task I choose to do and the floor, tools, and surfaces quickly become very messy. Things will usually stay quite messy until shortly after I have finished whatever it was I started and gone outside taken a breath, then I will clean the space and start over. My last finished piece will usually be: hidden out of sight for a few days(if the experience of making it was too traumatic), or neatly sitting on a table next to my work surface ready to supervise the making of the next.

Michelangelo v. Chihuly

Sisitine Chapel ceiling, 1508-1512, Michelangelo
Photographer unknown

Persian Ceiling, 2011, Dale Chihuly

Photo by Margo Belisle

David, 1501-1504, Michelangelo
Photo by Raymond Longaray

Mille Fiori, 2011, Dale Chihuly
Photo by Margo Belisle

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Thesis Presentations

It's one experience to view an art exhibit and formulate your own ideas about the pieces and a completely different experience to hear the artist discuss their ideas and processes behind their work. Josh Torbick, Katharine Austin, and Shayna Bicknell's presentations discussing their work.
I had the experience of watching some of Josh's work progress and transform over the year through glimpses in the wood shop and conversations in the foundry. One noticeable change in his work was his integration of metal into his wood furniture sculptures. His first project, a bench, had subtle embodiments of visible screws throughout the piece. The next, a large hammock reclining bench form for laying in, was mostly wood, but the steel structure became more pronounced and was a more significant part of the piece. In Josh's last piece, the metal was almost as equally important in the piece as the wood was. The steel parts were finished to a shine and clear coated, giving the metal an almost superior character over the wood. Another theme that repeatedly came up in Josh's dialogue were references to how the piece expressed memories from his childhood. From camping to vegetable farming, in Josh's work the idea of the tool and machine being a functional device to a person expand into becoming works of furniture.

I enjoyed Katie's approach to painting and the results she accomplished. She used a palette knife in all of her paintings giving the lines a fuzzy blended appearance, which I love to see(and I personally love to use the palette knife). Katie talked about focusing mostly on interior spaces and the relationship they had not only to herself but the other BFA students, probably because these are the spaces where they spent most of their time! She also studied color, light, and perspective comparisons. She bent lines to obscure the perspective and played with contrasting artificial and natural light sources.

My first observation of Shayna's work was during the exhibition's opening night. I definitely felt more drawn to her smaller works which were so intricate and full of bold colorful shapes crammed on a small canvas, the paintings jumped out at me and shouted HELLO I AM HERE, LOOK AT ME. She discussed her choice of painting mostly landscapes and how she intended for the authority of her color swatches to demand the same presence through out her paintings, which is a bold move I liked in her work because it forced the painting to be seen and distinguished, not just an image to be casually walked by.

Visiting Artist Lecture Vivian Beer

Leah Woods had posted fliers around the Service Building for visiting artist Vivian Beer, and stopped by the ceramics room during class to encourage students to attend. I was thrilled to attend because there haven't been very many(if any) sculpture artist lectures and I thought she had an awesome name!

I believed Vivian Beer's artist lecture was executed very well and certainly left me with a feeling inspiration. She first talked about her life growing up on the rural coast of Maine pretty much living without electricity or running water, spending most of her time out and about the wilderness. Beer flipped through many pictures she had taken from the outdoors that inspired her, kind of like her little collection box of favorite images that she keeps for motivational ideas for her work-- clouds, trees, landscapes. Beer uses the images around her to abstract her ideas from, so with the overflow of images thrown at us today through television, magazines, newspapers, and billboards, Vivian's image collection has grown to include new trendy shapes.

Many of Vivian Beer's works tiptoe the line between functional and non functional. Some pieces of furniture are elevated to tower above the viewer, giving a new perspective to what a chair is and possibly how it is and isn't used. She enjoys the idea of the chair the most, because a chair is most personable-- it has arms, legs and a back; can be in the kitchen or the dining room, or on the front porch; the chair can be anywhere.

Most of Beer's work is designed with sheet metal, her preferred medium which she pounds and shapes into forms that sometimes strikingly resemble a sleek new Ferrari. She wanted the people who sit on her benches to feel a sense of excitement that they would if they were sitting in one of those expensive suave cars.

She began experimenting with auto body paint finishes and soon her furniture and sculpture took on a whole new dazzle. She described the candy red paint she would layer on top of a hot pink paint coat making the red a vibrant hue of sparkle and color.



Another interesting aspect I found about her presentation, were the photographs taken of her sculptures. The blur of a person in the background walking by, examining, and/or sitting in the bench or chair gave the furniture a more approachable dimension. These weren't photos documenting cold quiet metal sculptures, the people in the pictures made them seem more interactive, functional, and playful which seems to be more of her intended purpose for those pieces.

Visiting Artist Workshop Karen Orsillo

So It's maybe 5pm and my intro to ceramics class if coming to an end, I finish glazing one of my latest slab projects and start cleaning up when I hear my professor, Don, announce that there will be a visiting artist doing a talk and demonstration about colored white clay. I normally go directly to the gym after class but I decided to stay and listen in with a few of the ceramic workshop students who showed up for the lecture.

Karen Orsillo was our speaker and demonstrator on coloring porcelain clay. She laid out some of her pieces of work and I was very intrigued by the array of eye-catching colors. She had been working with colored clay for over 30 years! She got her BFA in ceramics and started working with colored clay as an undergrad at UMass Amherst.


Because time was limited to an hour, Karen spoke mostly about the techniques used to make colored clay patterns by layering different colors, cutting pieces off, and rearranging them for specific designs. Her techniques were very clean and precise, she obviously knew what the business was all about.

Taken by the Wind

Wind Sculptures by Lyman Whitaker

This year's spring break was pretty uneventful. I stayed on campus and visited my boyfriend, Andy, in Maine for a few days to escape the ghost town UNH has become. I was talking with Andy's dad about some of my latest work in metal fabrication and he suggested visiting one of the art stores not too far away to see some interesting metal sculptures.

So we drove to the Maine Art store in Kennebunk and as soon as we turned onto the street I knew what cool sculptures Andy's dad was talking about.
These giant, swirling, undulating, double helix forms twisted in the wind. We walked around the small front lawn poking and taking pictures of the sculptures. Lyman Whitaker works out of Utah, but his sculptures are displayed all over the US such as Appleton, WI; Whittier, CA; St. Louis, MO; and Denver, CO.

Mad Scientist

Adobe Lightroom 3

My 10 year old sister is up to no good again. She's been working on a science project involving high-lighter water, flowers, and black lights. My father just recently acquired a new camera, the Canon PowerShot G12, to play with and snapped this shot of our blossoming mad scientist. I saw the photo and couldn't help but run it through Adobe Lightroom 3, here is what I came out with:

Original

Mad Scientist photo taken by Tom Belisle

After

Mad Scientist photos taken by Tom Belisle, edited by Margo Belisle

I love playing with high-contrast black and white photos! Click HERE for some of more my photos

The Institute of Contemporary Art

Field Trip!

I guess you can say I was surprised when we whizzed by the ICA building in the car(almost missing it) and my first sight was this lonely looking cube of a building, "That's IT?":

Picture by Hanneorla

Once inside, this boring looking cube was actually way more interesting than I thought. I found the interior space of the building to be most interesting. I loved the giant glass elevator that seemed to float up the middle of the building, allowing a peek into each floor(and creepily on it's occupants) as it rose.

One room I found particularly amazing was one lecture hall that seemed to slant into the glass wall that separated you between the room and the brackish water of the Boston Harbor below. Descending into this room required stepping down the stairs that lined both side walls which gave me a weird sense of vertigo, like I was falling into space as I went down.

Art Break

Artist talk by Trisha Coates

Last Wednesday I attended one of the Art Break lectures with visiting artist and UNH Alumni, Tricia Coates. My ceramics professor, Don Williams, had actually recommended that students in the class attend the lecture and view some of her work. I had seen some of her pieces on display in the UNH MOA for the ReView: Recent Work by UNH Alumni exhibit, I was astounded by the degree of detail in her work.

To be honest I couldn't hear very well what she was saying, her voice was soft and the microphone wasn't very loud, but I could tell she was very enthusiastic about her work. I did manage to hear a few words about her discussing her work, describing her pieces as "making a meal out of art". Her work consists of ceramic teapots primarily based on foods(her later pieces were based off seed pods), mostly vegetables incorporated some sort of knife or sharp food paring object(I believe she mentioned researching African weapons for some of her projects).

I loved looking at her work, the teapots were so elegant and looked so realistic, the glazes, englobes, and airbrushed paint finishes were perfectly executed for different food characteristic.

Here are images of some of my favorite pieces:

Pear Tea Set by Trisha Coates

Embracing Squash Teapot by Trisha Coates

Week 6 Readings

Anytime, Anywhere: Kanye West by Sasha Frere-Jones

This article discusses the professional and public image Kayne West has made for himself, how his ego sometimes makes a muck of things when he impulsively blurts out his opinions making an ass out of himself; and his fierce and relentless dedication to his work which still manages to impress the crowds. Even while often making a public douche-bag of himself and later apologizing for it, Kayne's music has become something of a mash-up of random feelings and ideas, becoming his own mixed genre of music.

Fancy Footwork by David Denby

Denby's review of Black Swan discusses the dark, twisted, psychological horror film resemblances in the director's deliberate idea about people destroying their own bodies(which seems to be a common theme among his other movies as well). This review also notes the film's recognition of the "controlled savagery of ballet", the high stress and emotions that are not seem in dancers as they appear lithe and gracefull in everyway on stage.

Before reading Denby's review of Love and Other Drugs, I had no idea that the movie was based around a satirical view of the pharmaceutical and medical industry. I also didn't know that Anne Hathaway's character, Maggie Murdock, had early on-set Parkinsons disease! I feel like some of the movie has been spoiled after reading this review, I have not seen it yet!

Ladies Wild: How not dumb is Gaga? by Sasha Frere Jones

In this next article by Sasha Frere Jones, this time about the pop singer and mind boggling fashionista Lady GaGa, Jones talks about how Gaga's musical success's come from much more than a good voice and flashy costumes. I don't consider myself much of music junkie, there is no way I could name off every artist and song I hear played to me, with the exception of a few popular hits that seem to catch my ear and stick to my mind. Lady Gaga's songs (i.e. "Poker Face", "Just Dance", "Bad Romance") are easily recognizable to an un-tuned ear, such as my own.

Gaga, once a school dropout, has written songs for Brittney Spears, Akon, Pussycat Dolls. Her songs make the college fraternity party hit list, encouraging even the stiff-legged to get up and dance.

Stumblings

Finding Inspiration

There are days when I am able to go to the studio and work a solid five hours on a project, then there are the days when I sit there and stare at the piece wishing it would just make it's self.

I found myself sitting in the studio this weekend at the end of my creative thinking rope, my sketchbook remained blank and the machines in the shop sat there silently. I probably sat there for an hour trying to think of a new direction for my next project in Metal Fabrication involving sheet metal.

I eventually realized staring at the machines and the blank walls weren't getting me anywhere, so I decided to hunt down some visual inspiration! I went to the library! First I googled anything and everything on sheet metal projects. A few images kept coming up and I found them interesting enough to click on and investigate further. They were images of kinetic mobiles! I loved the idea of a hanging mobile that moved. I ended up sketching a few mobile ideas and looking up books on Alexander Calder.

mobile by Alexander Calder

In my online search of inspirational metal sculptures, I also stumbled across an interesting contemporary sculptor, Sam Spiczka. Spiczka's work is comprised mostly of giant cor-ten steel forms resembling bones in abstract ways. I stumbled first stumbled across an image of his Relic II, 2005 sculpture which led me to his website, then to his blog! I read some of his blog and was actually quite inspired not only because his work is amazing, but that he seems like a normal person too, who also has a life outside the studio. Reading about artists, I usually only hear about their professional life as an artist, how it developed and what their inspirations were, but not too much about their personal lives. Reading his blog gave me a new perspective as a developing artist, and that successful artists can lead a somewhat normal life and not live entirely out of a studio or car.

Accretion IV, 2008
Sam Spiczka

Week 4 Readings

The Enveloping Air by John Berger

"Sometimes he was satisfied, often he was frustrated. Nevertheless he continued, searching for something more, determined to be more faithful, but to what?" -John Berger, page 48, Harper's Magazine, January 2011

This article discusses the manner in which Monet describes painting his work. How Monet painted the air that enveloped the scene he was capturing. Monet worked to capture a moment in time, a bird about to take flight from a fence, a particular time of day in a particular setting, all different details in how the air would touch the tings around it.

The Magpie
Claude Monet, 1869

Walter Gropius from Art in Theory

"Schooling alone can never produce art!" - Walter Gropius, page 310, Art in Theory

Gropius first talks about how the talent of an individual cannot be taught or learned, rather it's something that comes differently to each individual. However, the knowledge and understanding of design basics and nature of materials can be taught. The Bauhaus was an art school which covered all basis of what Gropius believed was the ultimate education for a schooled artist to live, work, and thrive under; even the architecture of the building helped to unite everyone within it, forming a community of artists. The Bauhaus not only schooled artists with technical details but helped artists express themselves in many creative ways, giving the artist the basis of visual vocabulary with which to work from.

Model of the Bauhaus

Week 3 Readings

Downtown's Daughter by Rebecca Mead

This article brings to light the eclectic and quirky life of Lena Dunham. Dunham, directer, producer, and star actor in her movie, Tiny Furniture, won the narrative-feature prize at South by Southwest Film Festival, and is now working on a new film project for HBO.

The first thing mentioned in this article was the youtube video posted of Dunham stripping to a bikini and bathing then brushing her teeth in a school fountain before getting the boot by a security officer. The video got a million and a half views and pages of comments of viewers critiquing Dunham's "looks". So, she's a bit on the chubby side, however Dunham jokes about the insults, comments, and judgments provoked by her physical appearance, praising her pudge and how it's apart of her silly personality , she says, "it's not the jiggling flesh; it's the attitude. I'll always have a fat attitude. I'll always have a chubby attitude."
Here is a trailer of her film, Tiny Furniture, a movie with very similar characteristics of her life, family, and personality.

Between the Lines by Peter Schjeldahl

"One idea is key: Kandunsjy's proposition that a line is a point set in motion." - Peter Schjeldahl, page 84, The New Yorker, Nov. 29, 2010


What is art? We all ask this question and many answers can arise from it. Many artists of the 20th century have stepped out of the rigid boundaries classic traditional art. Artists such as Picasso, Giacometti, Duchamp, Pollock, Kandinsky, and Agnes Martin have stepped 'outside the lines' of art, changing the idea of lines and perspective into a whole new cup of soup for viewers to sip on.

The Rope Dancer Accompanies Herself with Her Shadows

Man Ray, 1916

Louise Bourgeois: Statements from and Interview with Donald Kuspit

"Art is a privilege, a blessing, a relief." -Louise Bourgeois, page 1089, Ideas of the Postmodern

Louise Bourgeois mentions how art is a privilege, and it very much is so. The production of art usually requires pricey materials, a lengthy devotion of time, a creative mind to pursue an end result. An artist must pursue the task and create art, a painting or sculpture won't drop out of the sky.

Paul Cezanne Letters to Emile Bernard What Passes for Art- by Walter Pach 1940

"Get to the heart of what is before you and continue to express yourself as logistically as possible..." -Paul Cezanne, page 34, The Legacy of Symbolism

The first part of this reading contained excerpts from letters from an ill and aging Paul Cezanne to Emile Bernard. Cezanne's letters repeatedly discuss the importance of studying from nature while strongly emphasizes a painters use of his own sensations and perceptions. Cezanne also mentions the uselessness of talking about art, encouraging Emile Bernard to become a painter, not an art critique.

The second part of this section contained letter excerpts from Rainer Maria Rilke to his wife describing Cezanne's work displayed in Paris. Rilke finds himself absorbed in the colors and the simplicity of the form in one particular painting, Madame Cezanne in a Red Armchair(pictured left). Rilke describes the bold vertical stripes on the dress of the woman sitting in the painting, the vibrant red fabric of the arm chair and the patterned wallpapered background with a sense of awe and excitement like a kid would describe his first visit to Disneyland.

Madame Cezanne in a Red Armchair
Paul Cezanne, 1877

UNH Faculty Series: Jenni Cook and Arlene Kies

The "Other" side of the PCAC

Sometimes I forget the PCAC has two sections in the building, Fine Arts and Music. Huh, who would have thought they were in the same building, I always wondered where those strange sounds were coming from. . .

After attending the UNH Faculty Series with soprano Jenni Cook and Arlene Kies playing the piano, I am definitely ashamed to have not attended more shows. I also couldn't help but notice the attendance around me, mostly other faculty members or friends of performers, possibly some Durham community members, but other than the door ushers and the 2011 Sophomore Seminar class, few students showed up. I took a sheet with show times for the semester and plan to hang it on my door, maybe to at least inspire my roommates or hall friends to attend an upcoming show or two.

This is Nora, she likes to play the piano! Here is a video of her playing.

Frank

Meet Frank

This is Frank (left), I name my sculptures after the person they were modeled after. Frank was also the first ceramic portrait I made from a model. I had previously experimented with portraits and masks from images I found, but I had never worked with a model before Frank.

My family moved around quite a bit when I was younger and each time we moved I would find some sport or activity to keep myself busy and meet new people. When I was in 4th grade, my family moved from North Carolina to Chicago, and I picked up painting and drawing at a local art studio. Halfway through 6th grade my family moved again, from Chicago to Northern California, this time I picked up sculpture while taking classes with a local artist. I made Frank when I was fourteen years old, so I like to say we have a long history together.

Frank
Margo Belisle, 2004

Week 2 Readings

Blue of Distance by Rebecca Solnit

"The painters seemed to be smitten with the blue of distance, and when you look at these paintings it is easy to imagine a world where you could walk through an expanse of green grass, brown tree trunks, and white houses, and then suddenly arrive in the blue country where grass, trees, houses are blue, and perhaps if you looked down, you, too, would be as blue as the Hin- du god Krishna." -Rebecca Solnit, page 14

Rebecca Solnit discusses painters use of blue as a background hue to express the distance behind a subject. I like how Solnit discusses how children and adults seem to react differently to what is displayed in the foreground and background. Children tend to view things in the distance as intangible and are more interested in the things that are displayed directly before them, that they can touch and look at up close. Adults tend to take a liking to scenic distances and quaint horizons, as if seeing into a distant future, dreaming of possibilities.






Ginevra de'Benci
By Leonardo DaVinci

A Painter's Wisdom

"The best thing an artist can do, of course, is to die." -Max Beckmann, page 32 of Harpers Magazine, 1998

I found this article pretty amusing. It basically says, to be a great artist you must: have a wealthy patron and hot girlfriend/wife, not go over board on religious references(too old school), don't be the creepy anti-social neighbor, critiques are allowed to say whatever they want about your art, and you will only become a noteworthy artist once you are dead. Yea, real inspiring, but I can certainly agree with most of these depressing statements.

Tradition & Identity by David Smith

"I found that painting was made with anything at hand, building board, raw canvas, self-primed canvas, with or without brushes, on the easel on the floor, on the walls, no rules, no secret equipment, no anything except the conviction of the artist, his challenge to the world and his own identity." -Davis Smith, page 2

David Smith mentions how "sculpture can be painting and painting can be sculpture", implying how both the 2D and 3D arts are very similar in that they can come from the simplest of tools and found objects to create a beautiful vision. That all artists share a "visual heritage" that comes from each individual artist connecting to his or her inner self in a "declaration of purpose" through the journey of creating art.

Frank Stella & Carl Andre

"There are two problems in painting. One is to find out what painting it and the other is to find out how to make a painting. The first is learning something and the second is making something." - Frank Stella, page 820

I liked reading these short passages because I could connect to it. I don't paint much, and I think that might be because I have a hard time making it into something I find like able. I love observing other paintings and how the painter makes use of colors, materials, and brush strokes. However, I still have a hard time interpreting my ideas on the canvas. I generally use a palette knife, so I'm kind of sculpting with the paint, pushing it this way an that.

Still Life by Mary Gordon

"I wonder if Bonnard could do anything with this lightless room. If he could enter it, see in these suffering people, including my mother, especially my mother..." -Mary Gordon, page 49 of Harper's Magazine, 1998

Mary Gordon writes this memoir mostly about her obsession to the colors and "lightness" she finds most appealing in Pierre Bonnard's paintings. Gordon discusses her relationship with her ailing mother(who forgets she even has a daughter) and how she imagines Bonnard could paint a picture of her mother's sad life with it's glum surroundings of old age, fear, and emptiness, and change it to something bright and colorful; breathing life into objects and people that would normally be seen as dull, boring, or dead. Pictured right is a painting by Bonnard, Bowl of fruit. He had let the flowers in the bowl wilt and die before painting them, so "they would have more of a presence".

Week 1 Readings

Making Art, Making Artists By Wade Saunders

"Work moved faster when an assistant is involved. Change is often easier, because you will more readily destroy something the assistant has done than something you have made." -Wade Saunders, p. 75

I had heard of artists having assistants help them with some of their larger and more time-intensive pieces of work, but I had no idea that so many artists actually had assistants who would be responsible for a majority of the labor done on most of their pieces. I enjoyed the interviews with different artists and assistants and how they talked about going about their work. Some artists seemed to have more of a closer relationship with their assistants, personally helping or advising their assistants with their own art outside of work, while other artists seemed to want nothing to do with the assistants outside of the studio. As a sculptor, I see an opportunity to learn a lot about technical detail and working on large collaborative projects in an assistant position and wouldn't mind working as one or hiring one.

Procrastination By James Surowiecki

"Academics, who work for long periods in a self-directed fashion, may be especially prone to putting things off: surveys suggest that the vast majority of college students procrastinate" -James Surowiecki, page 110

I found it interesting how the number of people admitting to have difficulties dealing with procrastination has quadrupled between 1978 and 2002. I know certainly well that many college students, myself included, have issues dealing with procrastination and getting things done on time, even when we know very well that "Procrastination doesn't pay"(Alex Taylor).

Whether procrastination stems from ignorance, failure to plan appropriately, excessive planning, failure of will, or inability to plan long-term goals, I believe a majority of people are conflicted with some form of procrastination at some point in their lives.

I should probably start looking into that software program that shuts down internet access for up to eight hours, Freedom(how appropriately named)...

UNH Museum Opening

This past Friday I attended the UNH Museum opening and observed the two exhibits, Legacy: Works by Distinguished Former Faculty, and ReView: Recent Work by UNH Alumni. As a UNH art student myself, viewing the work of many former UNH students and faculty members became so much more personal than any of the previous exhibits I have attended at the UNH Museum of Art. So many great works of art were displayed and wonderfully represented University of New Hampshire.

I particularly enjoyed work done by Melvin Zabarsky, Adam Pearson, Christopher Gowell, Roger Goldenberg, and Janvier Rollande. Pictured below are the works of Melvin Zabarsky and Christopher Gowell.

I was also delighted to run into a few old friends of mine who were also attending the opening, one of whom was my previous academic advisor from way back when I was an Equine Science major, Sarah Hamilton!

Mother Earth
By Melvin Zabarsky
Displayed in the Legacy: Works by Distinguished Former Faculty exhibit

Iguana Birdbath
By Christopher Gowell
Displayed in the ReView: Recent Work by UNH Alumni exhibit

Criticizing Art: Chapter 1, pages 1-14 (attempt one)

I'll stop the train right now and start by admitting how boring the Criticizing Art text book readings are compared to the much more fascinating assigned articles. I couldn't get through reading the first five pages without getting an odd feeling of being rubbed wrong by what the book describes as "Professional Critiques", who are described as not liking the term "critique" either, due to the misconception that all criticism is negative. I do not have these ill feeling because I believe what they have to say is completely negative, I personally enjoy having my work critiqued and I like to receive both negative and positive feed back, sometimes giving me a new perspective on my work.

However, the criticism I usually receive is done by the instructors and students who have also gone through the same timely process I did to finish a project. They can understand what efforts were needed to complete a piece, and they can recognize and appreciate the efforts a classmate went through when working to their fullest potential... and when slacking off.

Perhaps it is this classroom atmosphere I am used to working in, but I can't help but wonder how the labeling of a writer as a "professional critique" came about. Many people will say that art is a process, inspired by an idea and worked into a visual creation. So, the end product doesn't always visually summarize the events that went into it's making. Is it still appropriate for someone who does not fully understand the processes, ideas, and technical details that went into the making of a piece to review that art and publish it?


Pretend you have an assignment to review a piece of art work. What would you have to say about the painting pictured below, without any information about it?

This is a painting done by an elephant named Ramona :)

Lists

By Lightwerk

I'm a list making kind of person who enjoys the company of the many colorful post-it note reminders that decorate my room and notebooks.
Lists:
-To Do lists for today, yesterday, and tomorrow
-Food Store
-Bucket lists
-Books To Read
-Things I Would Buy If I Had A Million Dollars
-Places To Someday Travel
-Awesome Quotes

and so on.

So my habits when working in the studio, usually start with a list.

1. Make List
I like to doodle and list the ideas I get, as well as the places and things that inspired them so I can reflect on that moment the epiphany came to me and milk it later for more ideas when I might be feeling less inspired to do work. I like putting my lists on post-it notes so I can make military alignments on the wall next to my bed and revisit them before sleeping. However, this summer I acquired a spiral notebook with Wonder Woman on the cover and have been filling its pages with my lists of random things.

2. Find Inspirational Images
After receiving a new project for the studio and listing my own ideas, I like to look-up art images other artists with a similar project may have previously done. I love seeing what other artists have done, and using their work to inspire a new image of my own. But usually when I am out-and-about campus, I search for angles or moments of tension between objects when layered next to each other (like the triangular negative shapes between the computer wires on my desk right now). It's like a game of "I Spy", looking for moments in everyday spaces to inspire the lines in a new sculpture.

3. Procrastinate
So I tend to be a lazy person sometimes. I like the planning, the build up of excitement over a new task, and finding new things. But I'm a reluctant starter, I will avoid starting something until the time I feel greatly motivated to DO it, or lack of time left to complete the project launches me into the studio.

4. Git-R-Done
After rearranging the post-it notes on my wall for the millionth time, there does come a time when something (hopefully) clicks in my head that I should MAYBE get this project finished(like finally sitting down at my laptop and writing this post after putting it off for two days). As lazy and reluctant as I am about starting things(you would think it was some kind of painful task I was being forced to do), once I get through the starting process, I immerse myself completely in the task and actually enjoy the experience. I will then revisit the studio as much as I have to, usually at the end of the day when I have a large block of time, and devote a few hours of work to the project until finished.